Following Him

That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings Phil 3:10

We need to know Jesus in order to walk with Him! This is especially important now that a new revival has begun! We saw early manifestations of it last August, and it is gaining momentum so quickly around the world that it is absolutely mindboggling. I wouldn't be surprised if this is the move that brings Jesus back! Unfortunately, many Christians - even so-called Full Gospel or Word people - are going to be left behind. They will not recognise that God is doing a new thing. They will form their own little denominations. To make sure that you do not miss this new move of God, you must share the same obsession Paul had in his earth walk: "That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection." If you have this same determination just to know Jesus - to know God in an intimate way. - I guarantee that you will never be left behind; you will always be in the forefront of what God is doing. Actually, there are four key elements we must follow in order to grow and develop properly, to be strong spiritually, and to move with God in the new revival:

1. We must be teachable.

Jesus, who was sinless, is our pattern. If we say we abide in Him, we ought to walk as He walked. However, we also can follow men like Paul, who was perhaps the most successful Christian who ever walked on the face of the earth. Paul's story is encouraging to me, because he was a man who made mistakes even after he was born again, but look how God used him! So we can look at Paul and see Jesus in him - and then we can pattern ourselves after Jesus in Paul's life. For example, in Phil 3:12-13 Paul shows us that he was teachable by admitting that he was not yet perfect. This is very important. To be successful, whether in natural relationships and your profession, or in spiritual life, you need to be teachable and to keep growing throughout your life. As Paul said, we never "arrive," because things keep changing.

So we need to be humble and acknowledge that we don't know everything. Yet we needn't accept every false doctrine that comes along. We must learn to check everything with the Word of God, because everything that comes along is not of God. The devil is continually trying to get people off the track. Let's not be like the "religious," unteachable people who were present at the healing of Lazarus (John 11) and the healing of the lame man (Acts 3). They are a classic example of what is happening today. Jesus had His biggest problem with the Pharisees - the Word people of His day! They knew every word that God had spoken - yet they didn't recognise Jesus when He walked by them in His physical body! Unfortunately, one reason many Christians are unteachable and unwilling to change is because of fear; often a fear of what people will think. Proverbs 29:25 tells us that the fear of man brings a snare. Fear is from Satan. God is love. And love casts out all fear. So when we walk in love - when we walk in God - fear is cast out.

2. We must be single-minded.

Paul said, "But this one thing I do." (v.13). One of the principles of faith is being single-minded. There is no place in the life of faith for us to be double-minded or continually wavering (see Mark 11:24 and Hebrews 10:23), for as James says, the double-minded man is unstable in all his ways (James 1:8). You may start out by saying, "I believe that financial prosperity and healing are for today." Then you run into some religious friends who poison your beliefs, and you start wavering. Now you don't believe in prosperity or healing at all. If you are not single-minded spiritually, you may become spiritually schizophrenic, which is what has happened to some Full Gospel / Pentecostal denominations! In their writings, they state that they believe in healing, casting out devils - everything. But in reality, they no longer believe in it. They've become double-minded. I used to visit with an old-time Pentecostal on the street of Minnesota town where we were starting a church. He would see me, come up and hug me, and start crying.

"We once believed the same way you do, but we've fallen away. God forgive us, we've fallen away!"

He'd say, "Brother Kaseman, what you are preaching out at the Holiday Inn, and the miracles you are having we had that, too, at one time. When our denomination was started in this town, the dead was raised and the crippled were healed. We once believed the same way as you do, but we've fallen away. God forgive us, we've fallen away!" Eventually that man's church stopped its old-timers from praying around the altar. They pushed them off into a tiny room. They didn't want anyone to be embarrassed with their loud praying. Then the church went on television, and they had to make sure that nobody would prophesy or speak in tongues on TV; they didn't want to ruin the church's image. They thought it would turn people off. Since when does God turn people off? Religious people, yes, but the people in the world are looking for the real thing! We'd better be as single-minded as the Apostle Paul was.

He was very determined to pursue the Lord Jesus Christ and get to know Him in the power of His resurrection. From the day Paul purposed to make God's Word a reality in his life, the devil never slackened in attacking him. You are familiar with how the devil hit him: Paul was stoned, shipwrecked, beaten and left for dead, imprisoned, and so forth. But Paul was so single-minded that he never wavered, despite all the resistance he suffered in this fight of faith. The majority of the time, Paul had to walk by faith just like you and I do. Yes, he had supernatural experiences, such as visions, but they probably only lasted a minute or two. The rest of the time, Paul had to "faith it" - just like we do! If you are going to get to know Jesus and the power of His resurrection like Paul did, you'd better know that God is on your side. He is not your enemy. This isn't what religion teaches. Religion gives the impression, "Look out for God! He's going to test you. It's for your own good, though. He's going to teach you a lesson". This makes God appear to be a sick person who delights in crippling people and causing diseases and accidents to happen to them. (If we follow that line of reasoning, it's time we locked God up before He destroys everything! That is certainly not the God of love that God says He is.)

And we've got prophets of doom saying, "The Church is going to be caught up as we are blasted out of here with a bomb." That is sick! Since when did God need a nuclear bomb to rapture His Church? I'll tell you, God is not going to blast or pour His wrath out on His own Body, His Bride. How do you suppose Enoch was caught away? Was he blown up in a bomb? What about Elijah? He went up in a chariot of fire. With the emphasis on love and coming into unity, I believe the Bride of Christ is going to walk with God like she has never walked with Him before, and suddenly the Church will be on more. Just - blink - like Enoch, who walked with God and was on more.

Since when did God need a nuclear bomb to rapture His Church?

Furthermore, God doesn't tempt anyone with evil, because He doesn't have evil (James 1:13). However, He is giving a test to us in this Church Age: He is testing us on our faith and obedience (Heb 11:6). Without faith it is impossible to please God, and faith without works or corresponding actions is dead (James 2:20). We believe and we do. If you really want to pass God's test, walk in divine health. Have your needs met abundantly. Resist the devil. Walk in love. Cast all your cares on Him. Refuse to worry about anything. Don't backbite or spread rumors. I haven't got 100 percent on this test yet, but I don't get condemned, because condemnation comes from the devil. Instead, I repent, get up, shake off the dust, and take another run for it. I keep learning and growing. When you get a church full of people who are single-minded about knowing God and making His Word a reality in every area of their lives, you'll have power and love - and people's needs will be met. No one will have to try to "work up" a miracle, a prophecy, or anything else. After Paul said, "But one thing I do," he added, "forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before." (Phil 3:13). This brings us to our third key to moving with God:

3. We must forgive, forget, and walk in love.

Every believer has made mistakes since he or she became a Christian. It takes time to learn to grow. Sometimes Christians end up back in alcohol, drugs, or adultery. You name the sin - Christians have been involved in it - but eventually they come to themselves. Then it is time to become teachable and say, "Lord, I repent. Forgive me." There is forgiveness: God forgives, forgets, and cleanses a person form all unrighteousness with the blood of Jesus. And it is like you have never done anything wrong. You have brand-new beginning! God is the God of new beginnings; I don't care what your past has been. As a Christian, you had better learn to forgive as you have been forgiven. God for forgiveness, and He has forgiven you, you need to forget. It is surprising how many people will not forget. Either they will not forget what other people have done to them, or they will not forget the mistakes they themselves have made.

A spirit of grief can destroy them; it can cripple their spirit. What is there to be gained by grieving over the past? It is time to forget. God forgives and forgets, and we need to do the same thing. If we don't it will kill us. I have made lots of mistakes, but they're all washed away with the blood of Jesus. I refuse to meditate on the past or bring it up, because I have repented; God has forgiven me; He has forgotten; and I'm moving on. We need to do that in our daily walk with the Lord. In Ephesians 4:32,  we are told, "Be kind to one another." Has that really been the reputation of the Christian Church? On the contrary, it seems like the Church has been set on "Self-destruct," and everyone has been devouring everyone else. Let's keep our eyes off everyone else, and let's keep our eyes on Jesus. If you refuse to forgive and forget, and if you've got your mouth going all the time, it will destroy your faith and cripple your spirit, because it's not love. Love pays no attention to a suffered wrong, as we see in First Corinthians 13 (especially in The Amplified Bible). I carry a copy of this translation in my notebook. An excellent place to practice the love walk is right at home. I believe it is our training ground. You know, when Christian refuses to forgive, he or she is the biggest hypocrite on earth, because Christianity is the love walk. Love never fails, fade out, because obsolete, or comes to an end. It can't, because God is love, love is God, and we are born of Him. We are born of love. We have His nature.

God is the God of new beginnings; I don't care what your past has been.

So we need to forgive, forget, and look forward to those things which are before us. Christianity is relationships. It is not a denomination. It is not a religion. It is having a relationship with a living God, and having love relationships with each other as members of the Body of Christ. If you come right down to it, all the problems in the world and the Church are a direct result of our relationships with each other: war, misunderstanding, divorce, strife, division. We need to make sure that we are doing what we can to promote love and unity in the Body. Because Jesus is coming back for a Church that will be walking in unity, (That doesn't mean that we will agree on everything, but it means we can walk in love with one another.) When everyone in the Body of Christ walks in the God-kind of love, the presence of God is going to be manifested like we have never seen it before. So we need to work at developing our relationship with God. Looking again at Philippians 3, we see that Paul said, "I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus" (v, 14). The word "press" reminded me of Deuteronomy 28:1-2, Hebrews 11:6, and James 1:2-3, passage that stress diligence or perseverance - continuing to do what God told us to do in spite of opposition or difficulty. This is our final point:

4. We must persevere.

This is a characteristic that Free World Christians need to learn. As God pours out His glory, darkness is going to increase like never before. And to be victorious, you'd better know God's voice, His Word, and how to fight spiritual warfare, or you will be one of the elect who will be deceived. If ever there was an hour when Christians needed to know how to pray for themselves and know God's voice for themselves - without running all over the country looking for a prophecy that comes from the flesh - it is now. (Everything that is supernatural is not God). We've got too many spiritually lazy Christians. They are not fighters; the devil has them on the run all the time, yet we Christians are the ones who are supposed to have the devil on the run. After all, we've got the Name and Jesus.

When a Christian refuses to forgive, he or she is the biggest hypocrite on earth, because Christianity is the love walk.

And at the Name of Jesus, every knee shall bow and every tongue confess. It's time we woke up, found our rightful place, and got ugly with the devil. Its called perseverance. The kingdom of God is taken by force. There is a devil out there that is doing everything he can to stop us. We need to get violent with the devil, and not only take what rightfully belongs to us, but set others free as well. One of the worst bondage's that people could ever get into is religion. It grieves my heart to see beautiful people in this Free World caught in religion that isn't scriptural and doesn't work; it's demonic. The harvest is right around the corner. We haven't seen it yet, because it takes time for that seed we've been planting to grow. Hold fast. This is no time to quit; the best is ahead. The church's finest hour is just ahead. Once we have fulfilled the love walk, the Church will become glorious, and then there is only one place to go - up. We are not alone in this fight; Christians all over the world are joining us. Jesus is with us. And the witnesses in heaven are watching us. So let's be faithful. Let's be teachable. Let's be very single-minded about what we are doing. Let's learn to walk in forgiveness and love, forgetting offences from the past. And let's get in the fight of faith and persevere. All of these things are vital in order for us to survive the things that are coming on the earth in this hour.

By Jim Kaseman